My name is Jack Grisham, from T.S.O.L.
author of 'American Demon,' I was in The Joykiller and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
I'm here at Amoeba and we're doing What's in My Bag today.
Elvis Costello. This just happens to be
the first ten years of Elvis Costello, but when we talk about cool concerts
this is one of them.
When Elvis came here he played Hollywood High,
and everyone always goes, Hollywood High, he played Hollywood High
but he also played Milliken high school, my high school
and it was Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and Mink Deville
I mean it was just so beautiful and killer and
it's when music was all changing
$5, sat right in the orchestra pit and just dug it.
The Damned 'Machine Gun Etiquette.' This is one of the best fucking records ever made.
I love these guys.
And I was so honored, I was actually asked to be in the documentary of The Damned
and I loved it and I love them.
Well this kind of goes hand in hand with this, not that, this: 'Who's Next.'
'Machine Gun Etiquette' is the punk rock version of 'Who's Next'
so if you put these two together, these are the two best rock records ever made
as far as I'm concerned, ever made, man.
This record right here was the theme song to any trouble I ever got into
and I wrote a book called 'An American Demon,' which I'll give a shameless plug to
and there's a part in 'American Demon' where I'm inside a church with an axe
and I'm getting ready to chop up the pulpit and then
'Love Song' was playing in my head.
So I used the lyrics, so I had to get a hold of Rat Scabies and say, hey Rat, do you mind if I use the song?
And he was like, Jack go ahead. He was stoked.
then he wrote me a blurb for the book.
Prince. C'mon, how can you not go with this?
I love Prince and 'I Wanna Be Your Lover' is the coolest song.
It's just so fuckin' cool.
You put it on in the car when you're going somewhere and it feels like something cool is gonna happen
And, speaking of that, I guess we can roll to The Spinners too.
I just love The Spinners, how can you not?
One of my favorite lines in this is, I think, one of the best first lines of a song ever.
It's 'this is our fork in the road/love's last episode/and there's nowhere to go.'
I used to get my friends, it's funny, because I'd get these guys that were
y'know, they're wannabe tough guys, and they get in the car because they want to go out
y'know drink and get hard or whatever
I'd throw on The Spinners on the 8-track
y'know, Barry White, I'd make these guys listen to Barry White.
Y'know, and it's like they can't stop me from playing it.
The Delfonics, The Stylistics
Hey I don't care. You guys may be going out to see Black Flag
but on the way there we're rolling Stylistics, so you're just gonna have to deal with it.
I like punk rock because I like the doing stuff
but whenever I go home or just want to sit, I just don't want to listen to that
it's just too hard and it's too...
I've gotta mellow out sometimes, which doesn't happen a lot, so
'Chet Baker Sings.' One of my favorites. It's just cool old standards and
I have a bunch of kids, I have five kids
and with my second kid down, my Georgia
when she was a baby, I'd just put on this record and would just sit and
hold her and just dance to this.
It's so smooth and so beautiful. I love it.
Sly Stone. How can you go wrong with this?
I was just talking about this the other day, about whether
people are inherently bad or inherently good
and there's a line that Sly says in
'Family Affair' and he says 'one child is somebody that just loves to learn'
'and another child is someone you just love to burn.'
So both loved by their moms
but both come from the same family and one is this and one is that.
The Velvet Underground. I grabbed a bunch, I'm sorry.
'Rock n Roll' is just one of my favorites.
It's kind of hand in hand a little bit with John Lennon's 'Whatever Gets You Through the Night.'
They've both got the same kind of feel.
To me, it's like what's it make you feel?
You feel like you wanna go do something. I get depressed sometimes
I don't anymore but I used to get really into it. Like when you get depressed, you get really depressed.
Go put on 'Superstar,' y'know, I mean just go put on something that just *waaah*
just really just fuckin break down.
However on the other side of breaking down, let's wipe that all away
this, 'Rock n Roll,' what a fun song and just so cool and
it's just like, hey we're gonna go.
I'll show you something funny. This is a Jack Johnson record.
I've never heard this, and I've never heard any of his songs
although my niece was friends with him. But I don't know anything about him whatsoever.
However there's a song on this record
that's the same as one of my songs, the same title.
So one day I come out to the mailbox and there's a check in the mail for four grand, right
and I'm like, oh what's this, and it's got this song title on it ok
So I go, oh that's bitchin right, four grand just out of the blue, I'm stoked.
But then I get greedy, I look and I say who are all these other writers? I don't know these people.
So I call the publishing company, I go, you're paying people that had nothing to do with this song
and they said, don't worry Jack, we'll find it, we'll get into it.
So then three months go by, I get another four grand check
Now instead of getting eight grand, I'm out twenty as far as my mind says.
So now I'm really yelling at the publishing people.
So another three months goes by, another check comes, another four grand, right
and then the publishing people call me and they go, oh my god, Jack we got to the bottom of it
you know, we found that check, do you still have it? I go, nah I fucking spent it.
and they go, well that's Jack Johnson's money, so...
I owed the publishing company twelve thousand dollars
because of one of these fucking songs. I mean I'm glad Jack's doing well
I mean, that's wonderful, but now they wanted me to pay the money back.
So they're using my royalties to pay it back
and I think that episode happened, I don't know, sixteen years ago
and I think I'm still ten in the hole, or whatever it is.
And then, the last thing, The Beatles 'Revolver.' How wonderful.
This is one of my favorite records. I don't know what to say about how much I love it.
A lot of these records are records that I put on when I'm going to make a record.
Now, nothing I've done sounds anything remotely like any of this stuff
although I have ripped off The Damned a few times
but when I put on a great song
it makes me want to strive to write a great song.
It's just the feeling of thinking, god, something this cool was created
and so that's why I like it.
Thank you so much.
You're very welcome. Thank you for having me.
I can't sing. I'm not a good singer.
So punk rock was the only way I was ever going to be able to play music.
Guys like me don't play in bands, y'know?
I never even thought about playing in a band
but then when punk rock started it was all about, just hey
I'm full of angst, I've got angst to go around, y'know
and I'm big and loud and wear nice shoes
so, hey, fuck I'm great as a singer.